A quick trip over to small town hardcore outfit Empire’s Facebook page will bring you a bit more than just the band’s music. Sure, you’ll get to explore the pictures, listen to the songs and catch up on their upcoming shows, but that’s all after the fact—after a prominent, unforgiving inverted crucifix slaps you right in the face, just before the first cavernous “chord” (composed completely of tritones) rips its way through your ear canal. A tough introduction, indeed, but who listens to metal to be coddled?

The desperate screams littering the introduction to “The Worst” should be enough evidence alone to prove that these Richmond, Michigan boys aren’t looking to lull or pacify. While some music can be thought of as an aural analgesic to your shredded feelings, Empire’s tunes are better visualized as cans of gasoline being hurled at a tire fire. Chris Fortuna takes nearly a minute to actually speak (or scream) a word, favoring a snotty cackle for a first impression rather than taking the easy, immediate route, and the rest of the band seems to be perfectly content bombarding the listeners with their seemingly endless walls of chugged fury throughout the duration of their recently released EP, “Lesson Learned”.

That’s not to say that we don’t find some sonic diversity hidden in the dark corners of Empire’s breakdown assailment, though if you dive in expecting a mosaic of genres and styles, you’re going to come out mostly unsatisfied and with a nice new bloody nose, which is something everyone gets anyways. Like a team of ancient gladiators, Empire picks an attack and sticks with it, so it should come as no surprise that “Anxiety” does heavy music justice with its refined interlocking riffing and percussion. The stylistic bass drum hits are like exclamation points, capping off each beat with an explosion of emotion as the eclectic riffs pan back and forth in your ears.

Prior to adopting the Empire moniker, the band named themselves (probably ironically) All Sounds Off, but after some new members rejuvenated the cause, the band as we know it today fatefully came to be. In the same way that additions to the sound brought about a new sense of seriousness, the “Teaser” for Empire’s new material only further elevates the group’s purpose. Incorporating new melodic ideas and more precise writing, the teaser will not only prove just how much Empire can grow in a short amount of time, but how long of a musical life they've got ahead of them. If you thought “Lesson Learned” was intense, then you’ve got a lot of training to do for what’s to come.